By GREG JAFFE, ERIC SCHMITT and HELENE COOPER Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired earlier this week after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program. Phelan is leaving the Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, in a terse statement. In his role leading the Navy, Phelan had championed the “Golden Fleet,” a major in

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida during a meeting with President Donald Trump and other Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 9, 2025. DeSantis has called state lawmakers for a special redistricting session — but he has yet to unveil a new map for legislators to consider. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By TIM BALK, NICK CORASANITI, REID J. EPSTEIN and PATRICIA MAZZEI Frustrated Republicans are looking to rebound from another setback in a nationwide redistr

Wind farms outside of Rock Port, Mo., on April 14, 2025. A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a series of permitting decisions that wind and solar developers say have throttled hundreds of renewable energy projects across the country. (David Robert Elliott/The New York Times) By BRAD PLUMER A federal judge earlier this week blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a series of decisions that wind and solar developers say have thrott

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, center, a Virginia Democrat whose district covers Loudoun County, speaks at a sparsely attended rally in Chantilly, Va., April 15, 2026. Democrats maintained their electoral momentum on Tuesday by securing the passage of an aggressively gerrymandered House map in Virginia. (Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times) By REID J. EPSTEIN Democrats maintained their electoral momentum earlier this week by securing the passage of an aggressively gerrymandered Hou

By ALEXANDRA E. PETRI A Michigan gas station clerk helped save a 16-year-old girl who entered his store and mouthed the word “help” after a man had kidnapped her at gunpoint on her way to school last week, authorities said. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday charged the suspect, Donald James Joseph Arthur Fields, 48, of Hamtramck, Michigan, with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of kidnapping, one count of possession of a firearm by a

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 15, 2025. Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump’s embattled labor secretary, stepped down on Monday, April 20, 2026, as multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her. (Al Drago/The New York Times) By REBECCA DAVIS O’BRIEN Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s embattled labor secretary, stepped down earlier this week as multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her. “Labor Sec

A FedEx driver makes a delivery in Miami Beach, Fla., April 28, 2025. The Trump administration is set to take its first steps toward returning more than $166 billion collected from tariffs that were struck down in February. (Scott Mcintyre/The New York Times) By TONY ROMM and ANA SWANSON When President Donald Trump unveiled his sprawling global tariffs last spring, he boasted that they would generate windfall profits and “make America wealthy again.” But after suffering a sig

Cpl. Chris Bordelon of the Shreveport Police Department speaks during a news conference in Shreveport, La., on Sunday, April 19, 2026, in a photo provided by the Shreveport Police Department. Eight children were killed in a domestic violence shooting spree that spanned at least three locations in Shreveport on Sunday morning, the authorities said. (Shreveport Police Department via The New York Times) By EDUARDO MEDINA, CHRISTINA MORALES and JOHNNY DÍAZ Eight children were kil

An attendee holds a campaign sign for Chaz Molder, the mayor of Columbia and a Democratic House candidate, during the town’s annual Mule Day celebrations in Columbia, Tenn., April 11, 2026. Molder, a small-town mayor and turkey hunter with a penchant for retail politics, is one of several Democrats hoping that a focus on kitchen-table issues can reverse their party’s fortunes in places like rural Tennessee. (Brad J. Vest/The New York Times) By EMILY COCHRANE and REID J. EPSTE

By JODI KANTOR and ADAM LIPTAK The New York Times is publishing seven confidential memos that were exchanged among the justices of the Supreme Court over five days in the winter of 2016. They tell a pivotal story. The memos show how the justices stumbled into a new way of conducting their work in major cases on presidential power, short-circuiting long-standing procedures meant to ensure careful consideration and reasoned opinions. In the papers, the justices debate taking an